Aptilo Service Management Platform Gets New Life with Wi-Fi Calling

Wi-Fi calling is increasingly becoming a service that's both eagerly sought after and eagerly provided. Offering a variety of advantages over traditional calling, both for network providers and for users, it's a proposition that's hard to pass up. Aptilo Networks, meanwhile, is taking advantage of this development as well to bring in a new breed of Wi-Fi calling systems to its Aptilo Service Management Platform (SMP) system.

With the new development, dubbed Aptilo SMP Wi-Fi Calling, users get access to a 3GPP AAA application that allows for easy calling using a Wi-Fi connection. The connection between the operator and the user, meanwhile, is kept particularly secure thanks to a set of what are described as advanced authentication mechanisms. Plus, the Aptilo SMP Wi-Fi Calling system reportedly works with information from other sources as well, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems and even policy management systems (PCRF).  The Aptilo system will even work with non-SIM devices, making it a particularly useful addition to the lineup in terms of putting the system in play. The Wi-Fi calling system has the added benefit of offering a way to improve connections while indoors—no longer needing to rely on a mobile signal, systems can switch to Wi-Fi as it's available and worthwhile for a better connection—which in turn improves user experience and reduces customer churn.

Aptilo Networks' director of business development, Jonas Lagerquist, offered up some comment on the system's release, saying “App-based Wi-Fi calling has been around for some time. However, next-generation Wi-Fi Calling with native support in the devices and seamless call transfer between LTE and Wi-Fi is a game-changer for the telecom industry. Aptilo’s next-generation Wi-Fi Calling solution delivers advanced functionalities that carriers need to compete. This type of extended functionality is required in real-world deployments.”

Indeed, app-based Wi-Fi calling is nothing new. Recently, we saw Cablevision's Freewheel bring the service into play for users, and well before that, T-Mobile was spotted putting the concept to work. It's an idea that has plenty of advantages, and in these days in which the mobile network operator (MNO) environment is so fiercely competitive—even Verizon was recently seen bulking up its data plans and offering some new incentives for users in the face of all this competition—pulling in new features to help improve the user experience is the kind of thing that most MNOs can't do readily. The feature that one won't bring in, another might, and anyone who really wanted that feature will go to where said feature can be had. That's a problem that most mobile systems are facing these days, and those who take it seriously are likely to come out ahead in the end.

While Wi-Fi calling itself may not save a company from disaster, every little bit counts, particularly these days when even Verizon's making changes to save its operations from disaster. Only time will tell if this is part of a growing trend, if more systems bring in Wi-Fi calling, or if there's something better afoot, but for right now, what's clear is that this is a market that's constantly changing, and Wi-Fi calling is part of the picture.